Let's Start with Art!!! November 2013 Report

[sue_88]

Greetings and Welcome!!

I am Sue and I am a Graphic Artist from the Kansas City area.
Every couple of years I take a trip "home" to Disney World. My hubby does not enjoy travel of any kind so I leave him at home and meet up with my sister (Jane) at Disney! For years we took Jane's two kids to the parks whenever I would visit, but her kids are all grown now and have tots of their own.
This past November I stayed at Pop from November 9 through November 16.
My sister Jane had some extra days off from her work and wanted a head start on the parks, so she made reservations at Pop as well.
Jane's son Tyler and his family couldn't get away from work this time, so we would be missing them. But Jane's daughter Alie and Alie's two daughters were going to join us later in the week.
Alie is expecting a new baby and was supposed to be "taking it easy" so she wasn't going to be able to do the whole week at parks.
Both my sister Jane and niece Alie were also leaving husbands at home. So it would be a girl only trip for us.
I scheduled this trip to touch on the last weekend of the Food and Wine Festival. And the trip also started off with the weekend of the annual Festival of the Masters art show at Downtown Disney!
I love art!! And most of my family are art fans. Well, at least the girls are!
Besides including the photos from this trip, I may also add occasional photos from previous trips. That way I can celebrate my happy memories and revisit my past vacations too!
So, here is the cast for this report:

Sue
This is me.
Favorite Park: Epcot
Favorite Princess: Rapunzel, Belle
Favorite Ride: Toy Story Mania
Favorite Disney Event: Festival of the Masters
Favorite Cupcake: Strawberry! (from BOG)
Favorite Disney Movies: Beauty and the Beast, Tangled, Parent Trap (original)
Favorite Characters: Belle and Beast, Rapunzel and Flynn, Roz, Vanellope (and lots of others).

Jane
My sister!
Favorite Park: Epcot
Favorite Princess: Ariel and Mulan
Favorite Ride: Everest
Favorite Disney Event: Flower Festival
Favorite Cupcake: Darth Vader (from Star Wars weekends and May the 4th)
Favorite Disney Movie: Toy Story, Jungle Book
Favorite Disney Character: Minnie, Alice in Wonderland

Alie
My niece! Jane's daughter!
Favorite Park: Epcot
Favorite Princess: Mulan, Jasmine, and Ariel
Favorite Ride: Little Mermaid
Favorite Disney Event: Flower Festival
Favorite Cupcake: Heather
Favorite Disney Movie: Wreck it Ralph
Favorite Character: Pascal from Tangled and Pearl from Finding Nemo

Heidi (4 years old) and Heather (1 year old)
Alie's girls!
Heidi's Favorites:
Favorite Disney Park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite Disney Princess: Cinderella, and Sophia
Favorite Disney Ride: Dumbo
Favorite Disney Event: Flower Festival
Favorite Disney Movie: (show) Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on Dis Junior
Favorite Disney Character: Donald (he makes me laugh)

Heather's Favorites:
Favorite Disney Park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite Disney Princess: Ariel
Favorite Disney Ride: Small World
Favorite Disney Event: 1/2 marathon
Favorite Disney Character: Roo


So, thank you for following along and being a part of my first ever attempt at a Disney trip report!!!

 

[sue_88]

Chapters



Meet the cast Introduction


Day 1 (November 9)arrival day! Checking in at Pop
Day 1 (November 9)Sister reunion! Heading to Magic Kingdom
Day 1 (November 9)More Magic Kingdom

Day 2 (November 10)Festival of the Masters at DTD
Day 2 (November 10)More of the art show, and lunch!
Day 2 (November 10)Entering Epcot and enjoying World Showcase
Day 2 (November 10)Character meets and Spaceship Earth

Day 3 (November 11)Disney Studios. Tower of Terror and animation class
Brief "real time" update Jane is at the parks this weekend.
Day 3 (November 11)Another drawing class and lunch at Prime Time!
Day 3 (November 11)Jane's day of photopass pics and visiting AoA.
Day 3 (November 11)Ending our day with more AoA!

Day 4 (November 12)Lunch at Be Our Guest
Day 4 (November 12)Learning about fairies and meeting Tink
Day 4 (November 12)Epcot fun and dinner at La Hacienda

Day 5 (November 13)Tusker Breakfast at AK
Day 5 (November 13)Character greets and DINOSAUR!
Day 5 (November 13)finishing up at AK and another AoA visit
Day 5 (November 13)Heidi modeling at AoA

Day 6 (November 14)Morning at MK. Meeting Ariel and Mickey

 

[JulieODC]

Joining in!! Our trips overlapped -- we were there the 10th-16th --it was a great week to be at WDW!

 

[sue_88]

Joining in!! Our trips overlapped -- we were there the 10th-16th --it was a great week to be at WDW!

Cool! And you are writing a report too! I look forward to reading it! It was a good time weather wise. And not too overly crowded.

 

[cjwross]

I would like to report a stollen photograph! That photo of me was hijacked from my 2011 trip report. As if you had no photos of me from this trip, lol

Well I guess I can forgive you, it is a tasty pic of me with my FREE Mickey bar.

Great start on your first TR, LOVE the CAST
Can't wait to hear what happens next.

 

[sue_88]

I would like to report a stollen photograph! That photo of me was hijacked from my 2011 trip report. As if you had no photos of me from this trip, lol

Well I guess I can forgive you, it is a tasty pic of me with my FREE Mickey bar.

Great start on your first TR, LOVE the CAST
Can't wait to hear what happens next.

Haha, I do apologize for stealing your photographic property!! But I figure any photo you have posted is available for my personal use! Is that not the way it is??

 

[sue_88]

I started my vacation from work two days before I would leave for Florida. I used these days to spend time with hubby, clean the house, and finish getting packed! By the time Saturday morning arrived I was soo ready for the fun to begin. I got up ridiculously early ( I had set more then one alarm clock just to be safe!) and before long I was ready to head to the airport.

I got to Kansas City International (MCI)

I was soon boarded and ready to depart. The pilot was entertaining and told jokes such as "If you will pretend to pay attention to the safety announcements, we will pretend that it is the first time we have explained them!" He also said that it was very early and he thought we should all go to sleep. As the lights went out as we took off he said "sleeeeep, it is time to sleeeeep".
I read for a little while but I think I did sleep for about half an hour.

So, how do you feel about the Magical Express? I think most Dis'ers are fans, no? My only problem is that I always feel a little off balance for an hour or two after I fly. I think it is a pressure issue with my ears. And this issue makes me want to get to the resort as quick as possible and without the need to possibly stop at lots of resorts. I have taken the Magical Express, but this time I decided to use Tiffany Towncar. It worked out well and the driver was waiting near the luggage carousel. He was very talkative and told me he moved to the Orlando area from Brazil. Now he regularly gets calls from his family claiming that they miss him terribly and need to come and visit! Of course when they arrive they spend all their time at the parks.
The driver and I also discussed the Magical Express. He told me that no one actually likes it. I did not agree! But I didn't argue with him either.
Soon we were here!

When we got to Pop I was so excited!!
The fun was just beginning. Such a happy moment in time!!
The check in desk was not at all crowded and my room was ready! Yes!!
I was put in building 9 which was the 80's area by the computer pool.
And it was this room.

I have stayed at Pop a few times and this building was the farthest walk I had ever had at this resort. But it was fine and I was happy!
I spent some time unpacking and making a mess of the table tops while I watched Stacey and put up a window decoration.

Next up: Jane and I go to Magic Kingdom!

 

[sue_88]

After I was satisfied that I had done an adequate unpacking job, I called Jane to see what she was up to. She said she was on her way back from a park and would be back at Pop very soon.
I went down to Everything Pop and looked around for a bit and in no time at all my sister walked in!

I was so happy to see my favorite sister I have ever had!
We stopped by to fill her mug and then went out by the hippy dippy pool to talk and make plans!

Jane said that we should do whatever I wanted (because she is nice) as she gets to be at Disney much more often than I do. So I said that I wanted to save the art show until Sunday morning and that I wanted to go to Magic Kingdom today! We decided to go by her room first and I looked at one of the photo albums that she had brought to show me.
Her room had this creature standing guard!

and she had this view from the back of her building.

We then went down to the bus stop and made our way to my first park of the trip!!
I used my magic band and didn't seem to have any issues so far.
We first went by and picked up some Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom cards so we could use them in our scrap books to commemorate our trip!
And then we were off to New Fantasyland. We first stopped in to admire Gaston's decorating skills.

Both Jane and I had set up some fastpass+ times in advance but we were having trouble getting some of them to be at the same times as each other. I had a Journey of the Little Mermaid fastpass for right about then and Jane said "go ahead and ride!" , so I did!

I really enjoyed my first ride under the sea!

We then went over to meet Goofy and Donald!

We then looked around the circus shopping area and we couldn't resist getting these cute Dumbo shirts for Heidi and Heather!

We took the seldom used path over to Tomorrowland and rode the Peoplemover!

continued on next post.

 

[sue_88]

We decided to visit Buzz Lightyear.

Jane was all eager and ready to join up with Star Command.

For some reason, Buzz seemed totally shocked to see us there.

We were glad to see Zurg behind bars where everyone could laugh at him and take photos of his incarceration.

It was getting dark outside. This day had been so long but was still going so fast!

We saw Buzz meeting and greeting so Jane was nice enough to document the moment for me.
(Nerd alert: I remember Jane and I debating, while we waited in line to meet Buzz, if sector 4 is really the be all and end all of the Gamma Quadrant. Perhaps we would be better off to visit sector 5 which should only be just a bit further. Or maybe back in sector 2 is where the really cool aliens congregate?)

We then found a photpass photographer in front of the shiny pretty castle.

We then ate a quick dinner at Columbia Harbour House which I lack photo evidence of. We sat upstairs and it was fairly crowded. The food was not bad but not especially special either.

It was then time to use fastpasses for meeting Rapunzel and Snow White!
Here you see Jane having an earnest conversation about how Pascal the lizard is similar to me! Rapunzel had said that she didn't have a sister but that Pascal was like having a sibling and then Rapunzel looked at me and said I reminded her of Pascal! Jane enjoyed that quite a bit.

We then moved on to Snow White. She was very pleasant.

It was then time to go back to Pop and get some sleep.
It had been a really lovely day and I couldn't wait to dream about having tons more Disney fun!

Up next: Jane and I stroll through the Festival of the Masters art show!

 

[sue_88]

The next morning I got ready for my first full Disney Day! Yay!!
I had my magic band and my smart water and was ready to go.

I was determined to take plenty of photos while on my way to meet up with Jane.

I noticed a change in this area of surfer Goofy in front of a little red corvette. This used to be a water play area and now it is just a photo op as it no longer has water jets.

I made it to the main building and found Jane on the phone with Alie! I talked to Alie and she said that she was glad that her mom and I were spending time with just us sisters. Sweet! It was very nice to have Sister Time!! I was looking forward to some Alie time too though.

We made our way to Downtown Disney and looked at ear hats in the first store we came to. I have been to Disney many times and had never purchased ears of my own and I was leaning toward changing that situation. I wanted to acquire my first pair and wasn't sure exactly what I wanted. I did consider going with "glow with the show" ears but I wanted to look at the possibilities.
I like how Jane is in the picture as a reflection in the mirror.

But, I didn't settle on anything at that store and my ear hat search continued.

We came to the first art booths and chalk art. It was a very pretty day and we were glad to have the art festival to enjoy.
You can tell by the reflection in the art that we were near the Earl of Sandwich.

This guy was in charge of getting people to add to this picture. It was made up of squares that were made up of tiny lego squares. They would give you a base piece that had colors marked on them and then you had to add the correct lego colors to the base. When finished you would find it's correct position and add it to the community made picture.
We decided to participate.

We wondered who this chalk art picture was supposed to be. ??

Contined on next post

 

[sue_88]

Let's look at some more art!
This is an interesting addition to the chalk art.

Some of the art is photography. Jane liked this Florida art.

Jane had suggested earlier that we might consider Raglan Road for lunch. I was happy that she wanted to go there as I had wanted to try it for a long time. At that point I told her I was ready to go see what the wait time would be for having lunch there.

Happily, we got a table right away, no waiting! They brought us out some bread.

We both got the fried fish and chips. The fries were garlic parmesean with truffle oil. They were so so good!! The fish was also excellent. I would be happy to eat here again!
Jane got a Guiness. I tried it and thought it was good too.

Mona Lisa was having a pint as well.

Here are a couple of art photos from previous years of Festival of the Masters.

Jane asked what I wanted to do after lunch and I said "Let's go to Epcot". So that is coming up next.

 

[jrj]

Following along... can't wait to read more

 

[sue_88]

Following along... can't wait to read more

So glad you joined my report!!

 

[disneylvr4vr]

Joining in! I am from the same area as you, and I fly out from MCI as well!

 

[sue_88]

Joining in! I am from the same area as you, and I fly out from MCI as well!

Hi neighbor!! I'm always happy to virtually meet other Disney addicts who live close by! Thanks for joining in!

 

[sue_88]

So we decided to go to Epcot next (oh, how I had missed my favorite park!!). Jane thought that the best strategy would be to take the resort bus over to the Yacht/Beach Club and walk to the International Gateway from there. This sounded like a very sensible plan to me!

Um, no I didn't try to make it look like those trees were growing out of her head like that. I guess I just have natural photographic skills!

We went to enter Epcot and I had an issue with my magicband. It wouldn't work properly and wasn't lighting up the green mickey as it is supposed to do. Of course using the magicbands as park admission is new enough that there were cast members right there to oversee the process and fix issues as they happened. A guy took us over to the side a bit and then scanned my band manually and said it looked like there had been some issue when my band was scanned the previous day. He asked what park I had been to and I told him I had gone to MK the day before. He said "fine, the issue should be fixed now." And apparently it was because I didn't have any issues getting into parks after that.

We walked only a short distance and found a photopass opportunity in France!

Jane had previously been getting stamps in her Food and Wine passport and needed a few that she had missed. We stopped at several booths to get her stamps.
It was pretty darn crowded.

We were full from our lunch at Raglan Road so it probably wasn't the best time to partake of Food and Wine but we were enjoying the Epcotness of our surroundings and Jane wanted some coffee. We found her coffee booth and then decided it was time for another photopass pic. This time in Italy!

We stopped by the Mitsukoshi store in Japan and Jane got a new book (I am curious to know if she like it) about an American family who drops everything and moves to Japan. I made a much less intellectual purchase. I got Japanese sweetarts.

We then walked past the African outpost and I saw something I had read about and was interested in. They are necklaces (or bracelets) that are made of handmade beads. They are made by low income people in Africa who are really helped by being able to sell jewelry in Epcot! Well, the really cool thing about the beads is that they are made by ripping outdated Disney park maps into strips and then rolling up the strips into various bead shapes. It is a pretty cool purchase! Here's what mine looks like, but of course I'm wearing it in some of the photos too. Also, Jane liked one of the bracelets and got it as a gift for her daughter-in-law Lauren!

We made our way over to Mexico where I needed to take photos of the pretty plants.

We went inside and I tried on this understated headwear.

Jane checked the character meet times on her phone app and Donald was due to greet here in Mexico soon. We went out to his greet location and Jane made this friend.

Not to be outdone, I made a friend that was even more sad looking than the one that Jane befriended.
We also talked to a couple of other families who joined us to wait for Donald's arrival.

Next up.. Will we find Donald??

 

[disneylvr4vr]

Hi neighbor!! I'm always happy to virtually meet other Disney addicts who live close by! Thanks for joining in!

You are the first i've met! Others that u have met?

 

[sue_88]

You are the first i've met! Others that u have met?

Well, I am sure there are plenty, but the one I talk to most is Shelly (or DawnMichelle)! She just got back from her latest Disney trip this week and I am wanting to hear about that myself. She writes a good trip report and the one she is just about finished with (from a previous trip) is named after her encounter with Gaston. Also, Shelly is an excellent photographer. If you want to read the report click the link below!

Shelly's trip report Everyone! Come see how handsome I am!

 

[wiigirl]

Great pics!

 

[sue_88]

Great pics!

THANK YOU!